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Transcriptomic analysis of H. perforatum L. pistils for the identification of genes related to aposporous apomixis.

ABSTRACT: Apomixis defines a number of reproductive strategies, which, unlike sexual reproduction, permit the inheritance of the maternal genome over generations without genetic recombination events. The key biological features of apomixis are the failure of meiosis (i.e., apomeiosis), the differentiation of unreduced embryo sacs and eggs, and their autonomous development in functional embryos through parthenogenesis and the formation of viable endosperm either via fertilization-independent means or following fertilization with a sperm cell (Koltunow and Grossniklaus 2003). Recently gained biological information has shown that H. perforatum is an attractive model system for the study of a naturally occurring form of asexual reproduction called aposporous apomixis, This research describes a global gene expression analysis of H. perforatum ovaries collected from sexual and aposporous plant accessions for the purpose of identifying genes and processes potentially associated with aposporous apomixis in this model species.

ORGANISM(S): Hypericum perforatum

PROVIDER: GSE84768 | GEO | 2017/03/08

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA331107

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Some flowering plants exhibit a phenomenon called apomixis, defined as the ability to produce seeds asexually and with the same genetic constitution as the mother plant. The existence of a genetic basis for apomixis is evident, but the molecular mechanisms that underlie it remain unclear. The search for M-bM-^@M-^\the master apomixis geneM-bM-^@M-^] had led to the isolation of diverse candidate transcripts. However, neither of them could be clearly confirmed. The techniques employed so far have been based on differential-display PCR and have not allowed detecting transcripts with low levels of expression or low differential expression. For all these reasons, in this study we employed cDNA microarrays combined with subtractive libraries in order to isolate transcripts with differential expression between sexual and apomictic plants of the genus Brachiaria. We used ovaries corresponding to two developmental stages: i) stage I, appearing of initial aposporic cell in apomictic plants; and ii) stage II, degeneration of meiotic-derived tetrad and establishment of diploid embryo sac in apomictic plants. Subtractive libraries revealed some differential bands, which were spotted over glass slides together with clones from non-subtractive libraries, and with amplicons associated to apomixis obtained using degenerate PCR. A total of 26 distinct sequences showed differential expression, only 1 of them was overexpressed in apomictic plants, and the majority was related to stage I. Bioinformatic analyses confirmed meiosis-related roles for some of the genes, a result consistent with a higher level of expression in sexual ovaries. Nevertheless, for some sequences a clear function could not be assigned. Some of them appear to be related to the polyploid stage of apomictic plants, in one hand, and to putative transcription factors, on the other hand. The implications of these results under a molecular model of apomeiosis are discussed. We employed RNA from ovaries from sexual plants as a control, and RNA from ovaries of apomictic plants as experiment. Four different sexual and four apomictic genotypes were employed. A sexual genotype was compared against a given apomictic genotype, for a total of 4 comparisions. Each comparision were performed ifor two developmental stages, for a total of eight comparisions. In each comparision, a dye swap was done.

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Transcriptomic analysis of H. perforatum L. pistils for the identification of genes related to aposporous apomixis.

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